The Flash #37 - A Review

There's a new crime boss in Central City and his war with the usurper Copperhead is running The Flash ragged. Barry Allen is busy too, following the trail of a murderer in Iron Heights Prison while trying to stay under the radar of Warden Wolfe and Captain Singh. Unfortunately, an old enemy is about to stop The Flash cold...


Scott McDaniel takes over the art duties for this issue and it's hard to think of an artist better suited for The Flash. McDaniel's work on Nightwing is still fondly remembered, due to his kinetic style which showed every step of Dick Grayson in motion as he executed his acrobatic maneuvers. One would think that would work just as well in depicting Barry Allen in motion.

Unfortunately, McDaniel's work here is far from his best. Many panels appear sloppy and slap-dash and McDaniel's sense of storytelling seems to have left him. Far too many panels are cluttered and the heavy inks of Mick Gray cause some of the details to be lost in the tight quarters. Not even Hi-Fi's fantastic colors can save the book's visuals.

It's a shame because Joshua Williamson's writing continues to be the best aspect of the book. Hopefully Williamson will find an artist who can match him in quality soon. I may soon get tired of suffering through mediocre artwork for the sake of a good story.

The Final Analysis: 5 out of 10. Great story. Cluttered artwork.

Green Lantern: Edge of Oblivion #6 - A Review

The Universe is ending! The Green Lantern Corps is all the stands between two reality-devouring horrors and the last city in existence. And as Simon Baz desperately searches for a way out of this reality, Guy Gardner broadcasts a desperate last message, hoping that someone will hear it and know that whatever happened in the end that The Green Lantern Corps died fighting.


If this were going to be the last Green Lantern story ever, Tom Taylor would have crafted them a worthy final tale. Of course we know that the fate of The Corps will be determined in a future story and that Simon Baz survived whatever happened to him in this issue's climax but that doesn't spoil this story at all. Taken for what it is, this is a fine piece of space opera that features a lot of great character moments, from Guy Gardner's desperate pleas that he and his friends not be forgotten to drill-sergeant Killwog 's rallying of the troops.



Unfortunately, the artwork takes a serious dip in quality in this final issue. Jack Herbert is a competent artist but his work here - based on the layouts of Scott McDaniel - is incredibly cluttered. You can barely see the backgrounds on those pages where there are backgrounds!  The color art by Hi-Fi, however, remains top-notch.

Green Lantern Corps: Edge of Oblivion #5 - A Review

Discovering they've been duped into aiding a group of world-devouring parasites, several of the surviving Green Lanterns are feeling pretty foolish. And nobody feels more foolish than Guy Gardner. Unfortunately for the parasites in question, there's few things Guy Gardner hates more than feeling foolish and one of them is anyone who leads him to feel foolish.


I loved the way Tom Taylor wrote Guy Gardner back in Injustice: Year Two, showing a true understanding of the character unseen in the monthly Green Lantern books for some time. There's a flashback sequence here that summarizes Guy's character better than anything I've ever seen. Taylor's script beautifully ties this into Guy's current conflict, while displaying the perfect balance of action and humor that has made Taylor so beloved as a writer.


Unfortunately, the artwork is all over the place this month.  This is primarily due to Scott McDaniel, who apparently did all of the layouts but none of the finishes. McDaniel can be a great artist, but it just seems strange to have the likes of Ardian Syaf and Cliff Richards (both good artists) trying to draw their work according to a McDaniel design. Three individual inkers only serve to confound the visual continuity further.

World's Finest #17 - A Review

I fear my patience with World's Finest has finally worn out.  Generally, I've enjoyed this book and I've found Paul Levitz's take on Huntress and Power Girl to be enjoyable.  I've especially liked how he made an effort to include small moments that revealed the characters in each issue, showing the character's personalities outside of their lives as superheroes.  


That being said, it's become apparent that Levitz is being forced to tread water while DC Editorial figures out exactly what it wants to do with these characters in the grand scheme of either Earth 1 or Earth 2.  Why else would the on-going plot of Power Girl's quest to get home be neutralized in favor of her randomly losing her powers while Huntress suddenly becomes obsessed with a super-powered killer who is targeting fashion shows?  Even with part of this story taking place inside of the villain's mind, we're still no clearer on her motives and the whole affair feels very repetitive after last month.


The artwork is a larger issue.  To be quite blunt, Scott McDaniel and R.B. Silva are completely incompatible as artistic partners.  McDaniel's sketchy style is an acquired taste and while his work looks quite good in close-ups, it loses all charm and detail in the mid-range and long-range.  Silva is a good detail-oriented artist, but his strengths lie in depicting rounded, cartoonish figures.  For him to try and ape McDaniel's more angular style is a disservice to them both. 

World's Finest #16 - A Review

World's Finest #16 offers more of the same high-quality superhero action readers have come to expect from this title.  Trapped once more on Earth One following their battle with the villain Desadd last issue, our heroines are reacting quite differently to their missed chance to leap home.  Helena "Huntress" Wayne elects to throw herself into her work and an investigation of a mysterious arsonist targeting fashion shows.  Karen "Power Girl" Star, by contrast, is wallowing in self-pity - not only because of the missed homecoming but because the battle with Desadd has left her superpowers in a state of flux. 

Paul Levitz does a fine job of playing up Karen's loss without making her seem overly emotional.  It helps that Karen's reaction seems far more natural than Helena's mute acceptance of that which she can't control.  Then again, Helena's always been more of a cypher compared to Karen under Levitz's pen and her interest in returning to Earth Two was limited to begin with.


This title's biggest problem has always been its' artwork and a lack of consistency due to the continually rotating art teams.  That trend continues with yet another new team of artists that proves to be far less competent than the previous one.  Scott McDaniel has delivered quality work in the past and indeed his work with Chuck Dixon on Nightwing remains one of my favorite series of all time.  That being said, his breakdowns on this issue are sloppy and R.B. Silva is a poor choice for a finisher.  I liked Silva's work on Superboy but Silva's rounded, deliberate style is at odds with McDaniel's angular sketchy schtick.  The final product is odd to say the least! 


I fear World's Finest is a title adrift.  With the road to Earth Two closed, there is no long-term goal for its' characters nor is their ultimately a point other than heroism for heroism's sake.  That is not necessarily a bad thing given how rare it is to see honestly heroic characters in modern superhero books.  Yet one senses this divide is the one of the few things preventing this book from being a great title rather than a merely good one.  A consistent art team couldn't hurt, either! 

52 Pick-Up - Week One

Since my recent Internet outage has left me somewhat behind, I've opted to do something akin to the old Fast Thoughts reviews from my old blog regarding all of the new DC Universe books I was trying again after the first month of 52 new #1s.

Welcome to the first installment of 52 Pick-Up.


ACTION COMICS #2 - Captured by Lex Luthor and General Lane, Superman must endure some horrific tortures as he bides his time waiting for an opportunity to escape. Morrison and Morales continue give us the best Superman comic in recent memory as they reestablish the key elements of the Superman mythos. We see our first appearance of John Henry Irons and John Corben (a.k.a. The Man Who Will Be Metallo) and what I think is the first appearance of Brainiac in this new reality. But Morrison still finds ways to bring something new into the mix, not only giving us a plausable-sounding scientific explanation for how Superman's heat vision would work (i.e. focused microwaves) but finding new uses for Superman's powers, such as using his microwave vision to scramble electronics. Highly recommended.


GREEN ARROW #2 - Concerned about Green Arrow's success in taking out their party pals, a group of celebrity supervillains make plans to draw out the Emerald Archer. We get a lot character scenes this time around, watching Ollie go through a typical workday. Not surprisingly this involves as little "work" as possible, opening with him playing basketball with the local star athlete, meeting with his personal assistant briefly to bump back as many appointments as possible and then heading to the lab to test-drive the new trick arrows. Still an enjoyable book, with plenty of action in the beginning and end. And bonus - the last page promises we'll see Black Canary next issue!


STATIC SHOCK #2 - Recovered from his apparent injury at the end of last issue, Virgil is as shocked that his powers apparently let him reattach a severed limb as we are, figuring that the only thing that saved him was his attacker using an atom-thick blade that cut so neatly his electrical powers automatically fused the flesh back together. While this is a cool explanation that cements just how powerful Virgil is, it still seems like a total cheat. There's still no explanation for why Static has two sisters now, though we do find out that one of them is a clone of the other and that Virgil feels responsible for it... somehow. This book is stumbling a bit but the action scenes are still great, though McDaniel's pencils are getting a little sloppy on the long-shots. I may give this one another issue but this may be moving to "Wait For The Trade" status.

Static Shock #1 - A Review

I never met Dwayne McDuffie. I never even got the chance to talk to him on-line before his sudden death earlier this year, which is a shame because I always liked him as a writer and I suspect – from what I saw of his personal writings – that I would have liked him as a friend. He was outspoken, opinionated and he upset a lot of people by opening his mouth when it probably would have been easier to keep quiet.

Small wonder I identify with that, right?

I bring this up because I couldn’t help but think about Dwayne McDuffie as I was reading this first issue of Static Shock and wondering how he’d feel about it. I believe this is the first time anyone has produced something with the character without McDuffie’s involvement. I’ve read a few of the original McDuffie’s original Static comics and I also wondered how this book might read to those who only know the character from the Static Shock cartoon.

Thankfully, the book is quick to establish the character of Virgil Hawkins a.k.a. Static – who he is, what his powers are and his “I put the smart in smart ass” personality. So it doesn’t matter if you’re an old fan, a new fan, a fan who only read the comics or a fan that only saw the cartoon. Within two pages, we know everything we need to know and the action is on!

Scott McDaniel is a natural for the illustration duties on this title. Looking over his resume, I’m surprised to see that this is the first time he’s done the art for a comic book centering upon a super-powered protagonist. McDaniel is famous for his work on Nightwing and Green Arrow but his style – which I’ve always thought of as living graffiti – is perfect for a high-energy character like Static.

I believe this also marks the first time McDaniel has officially done double-duty as artist and storyteller. Joining him on the writing duties is John Rozum, who is no stranger to the original Milestone Comics universe, having created the characters Xombi and Kobalt as well as writing several issues of Hardware. Fitting, as Hardware himself is reintroduced in this title as Static’s mentor and the figure responsible for moving Virgil and his family from Dakota to New York City.

Reading this title, it’s hard not to be reminded of Stan Lee’s work on Spider-Man. Virgil is Peter Parker’s spiritual successor, possessing the smarts to go with his smart-mouth. The fight with the plasma-wielding villain Sunspot – which takes up most of the issue – showcases how Virgil uses his knowledge of science in combination with his superpowers to bring bad guys to heel. I wouldn’t go so far as to say this book is educational (mainly because I want to encourage teenagers to read it) but I could see it encouraging some young readers’ interest in science.

Regardless, I think Dwayne McDuffie would approve of this book. I know I do. And I’ll be back to see the result of what is – bar none – the most shocking splash-page of the year. No electricity-related pun intended.